Intentions to Marry, 1864

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840376, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 395

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1864

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
391	22 December 1864	William Carpenter Susan Swords	William Carpenter Susan Swords 💍 1864/5867	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 18	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 17 yrs	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	150/14	Margaret Swords, mother	22 December 1864	Rev. E. G. Edwards
392	23 December 1864	John Cormack Isabella Dunnet	Jno Cormack Isabella Dunnet 💍 1864/6140	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 weeks	In the house of William Dunnet Sutherland George Street Dunedin	1413		23 December 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
393	23 December 1864	Ridolph Becker Mary Samson	Rudolph Becker Mary Samson 💍 1864/6047	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	36 24	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 2 yrs	In the house of William Samson Bell hill Dunedin	1490		23 December 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns D.D.
394	23 December 1864	Michael Lonley Annie Maria Batchelar	Michael Conley Annie Maria Batchelor 💍 1864/6827	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	30 20	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 18 months	In the office of the Registrar of marriages Dunedin	1257	no Person to give consent	23 December 1864	Registrar of marriages Dunedin
395	24 December 1864	Robert Meikle Margaret Mellar	Robert Meikle Margaret M McIntosh 💍 1864/6149	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 months 3 days	In the house of Robert Meikle Russell Street Dunedin	1416	Robert Meikle, father	24 December 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
396	28 December 1864	Peter McLean Jessie Begbie	Peter McLean Jessie Begbie 💍 1864/6143	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 17	Dunedin Dunedin	1 yr 1 yr	In the house of John McLean George Street Dunedin	141/4	John Begbie, father	28 December 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
397	28 December 1864	Patrick O'Brien Frances Elizabeth Armstrong	Patrick O'Brien Frances Elizabeth Armstrong 💍 1864/5694	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	35 23	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 3 months	In St. Joseph's Chapel Dunedin	623		28 December 1864	Revd. H. Moreau
398	28 December 1864	James Richard Davis Ida Augusta Hart	James Richard Davis Ada Augusta Hart 💍 1864/5816	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 23	Dunedin Dunedin	10 days 3 years	In the Wesleyan Church Dunedin	1566		28 December 1864	Rev. J. Aldred
399	28 December 1864	Edward Shields Mary Ann Hare	Edward Sheilds Mary Ann Hare 💍 1864/5870	Bachelor Widow	Seaman	31 23	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 3 yrs	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1565		28 December 1864	Rev. E. G. Edwards

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).